and right now he's getting ready to meet with the prime minister. white house correspondent dan lothian is in bangkok this morning. what is the president hoping to accomplish? >> reporter: he wants to high light things, not just this country but other countries in the region. u.s. dealing with north korea, syria, iran. so this is part of the overall effort by the obama administration to continue pushing this refocus or this pivot is the word they like to use to asia. we saw last year, at the end of last year when the president did an asia trip and australia announced that u.s. troops, marines, would be going to that region. that was part of the defense component of this. they also see great benefits both domestically in the u.s. but also in this region. the president has talked about how trade in this region could lead to jobs at home. so these are some of the issues that the president will be addressing, but perhaps first and foremost we'll be talking about the push for democracy across the region and how thailand can play a role in that, victor. >